Benefit at Waterwheel Cafe in Milford special

Thursday

May 8, 2014 at 7:00 AM

Be the Match Foundation saved Lee Raden's life, so Saturday the foundation will be the beneficiary of proceeds from a CD release party for Raden's "electroacoustic roots rock band," They Know, at the Waterwheel Cafe in Milford.

Jessica Cohen

Be the Match Foundation saved Lee Raden's life, so Saturday the foundation will be the beneficiary of proceeds from a CD release party for Raden's "electroacoustic roots rock band," They Know, at the Waterwheel Cafe in Milford.

The band consists of Raden and his high school friend Daniel Ehart, with Carolyn Burbage on drums.

Raden was a home nurse in New York City specializing in AIDS and HIV cases in the 1980s and '90s. In 2000, he moved to Pike County with his partner and became a home care nurse. He happened to be Waterwheel owner Nancie Simonet's nurse when she developed a pre-leukemic condition requiring a stem cell transplant in 2003. In 2010, he found himself in the same predicament when a routine blood test revealed he had leukemia.

Neither Simonet nor Raden found a suitable match among relatives — a problem for 70 percent of transplant cases — so both turned to Be the Match to save them.

The foundation operates a registry that collects cheek swab samples from volunteers around the country, which can be used to identify matches for people in need of stem cell or bone marrow transplants. Stem cell donation, much like blood donation, often replaces the more invasive bone marrow transplant, says Raden.

Raden's closest match, with nine of 10 proteins matching his, turned out to be a urologist in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who had joined the registry while in medical school 20 years earlier. He had forgotten until he got the call, but he came forward and gave Raden the needed stem cells.

"I wouldn't be here without him," Raden said.

Recipients refrain from contacting donors until a year after the transplant, and Raden waited until he was past his adjustment crises, which lasted for many uncertain months.

Not able to go back to nursing at this point, Raden can still play music, as he has aspired to since his Catholic high school days, when he and Ehart submerged themselves in listening to Pink Floyd, Neil Young, the Doors, and the Grateful Dead. Raden also teaches yoga, following the philosophical lead of Ray Manzarek, Doors keyboard player, about whom he always wondered, "How does he make that sound?"

Two representatives from Be the Match may attend the Waterwheel event, where They Know will play two sets, a "variety set" while people eat dinner, and then a set based on the CD, which was recorded live in September in Milford.